Technical Field
Embodiments described herein are related to electronic systems including memory and memory error handling.
Description of the Related Art
Memory devices used in various electronic systems are subject to failures over time. Transient failures can be corrected using various types of error checking/correcting codes (ECC), which generally include storing additional bits that are generated over the data being stored in the memory, performing the same ECC generation operation when the data is read, and ensuring that the newly generated data and the additional bits stored with the data are equal. Permanent failures due to damage to the memory itself can be corrected with ECC to a certain extent as well, but the occurrence of permanent failures along with the possibility of transient failures in the same location increases the likelihood that uncorrectable errors will occur. Furthermore, the number of permanent failures can be larger than the number of errors that can be corrected, in which case the memory location becomes unusable.